


Tell Me Something I Don't Already Know

by AKnownLesbian



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Jefferson is a supportive dad, Miles Morales Needs a Hug, Miles attempts to tell his parents he's spiderman, Minor injured miles, Really it isn't that important to the story, Rio is a supportive mom, Rio is also worried, So is Jefferson, Well plotwise it is, but it doesn't show up a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-04 10:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17896697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKnownLesbian/pseuds/AKnownLesbian
Summary: After learning how May found out that Peter was Spiderman, Miles attempts to tell his parents about his secret identity. Things don't quite go as planned





	1. Chapter 1

It's quiet in Aunt May's kitchen. May is quietly stitching up Miles suit after having done the same to Miles. Doc Ock clearly got a few good hits in. Miles nursed his stitched up cuts, watching with fascination as the small cut on his arm closed up and healed in a manner of minutes. _An increased healing factor... cool._ He thought to himself. Then he looked up at May, she had seemed so incredibly level-headed when he came stumbling in with a torn suit and injured body. She probably had seen this a lot with Peter. He wondered how often he had stumbled through the door, clutching a wound and steadying himself by grabbing various pieces of furniture. He wondered how many times May had to drop everything to stop her nephew from bleeding out.

"Ms Parker?" Miles asked, shifting nervously in his seat.

May looked up from her sewing and flashed Miles a kind smile. "You're allowed to call me May, you know that right?"

He played with the hem of his borrowed shirt. It was one of Peter's old ones. May hadn't had the time nor the heart to throw them out just yet. Miles was grateful for that, even if it felt weird to wear a dead man's clothes. It did beat sitting in the kitchen wearing nothing but his underwear. He took a deep breath, hoping that he wasn't overstepping boundaries.

"How did you know that Peter was Spiderman?" 

She abruptly stopped. After a moment that seemed to feel like an eternity for both May and Miles, she put the suit down and sighed. She had expected him to ask at some point, but that didn't take away that it was not her favourite story to tell about Peter. “It isn’t exactly a nice story, Miles. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

He nodded.

May’s face was stern, but a deep sorrow could be seen behind those eyes as she told the story of how she discovered her Nephew was Spiderman. “One night Peter came stumbling into the house. Poor boy, lost his keys somewhere in the Bronx while fighting Electro, so he kicked the door down. I thought someone had broken into my house, I made my way downstairs, tight grip on my baseball bat. That’s when I saw Peter, bleeding out on my kitchen floor.” Miles stared at May with wide eyes. He had a lump in his throat at the mere thought of his parents finding out he was Spiderman in that way. May continued her story. 

“At first I didn’t want to believe it, I wanted to think that Peter was so stupid to become a copycat; making his own costume and fighting crime like Spiderman did. No, no, he was the real Spiderman.” Despite the pain of remembering the story, of remembering her nephew, she had a fond smile on her face. She knew this is what Peter would’ve wanted; not mourning his death but remembering all the stupid things he did and celebrating his life. Miles listened with bated breath, only remembering to breathe after May finished her story and made the final stitch in his suit. He put it back on, thanked her politely for helping him out and headed back to Visions Academy, determined to tell his parents his secret the following weekend. 

~

“Ganke?”

“Yeah?” He yawned.

“What’s the best way to tell your parents a secret?” Miles asked. He knew it was late. If Ganke Lee was yawning, then it had to be. That boy lived on energy drinks and seemed to be able to pull all-nighters without feeling any of the repercussions. Miles would’ve been jealous had it not been for the fact that he had Spider-Powers.

“I dunno, I usually tell secrets while my parents are driving. You don’t have to directly look at them and they can’t be mad at you immediately since they have to watch the road. Depends on the secret though, if you ask me.” Ganke turned around in his chair and looked at his friend. “What are you trying to tell them?”

“That I’m Spiderman.” Miles shrugged. Telling Ganke had been easy, wasn’t even really on purpose. He just kinda showed up wearing his spider-suit one day and the rest is history. Telling his parents would be a whole different thing especially with how his dad felt about Spiderman. He knew his dad was warming up to Spiderman, he could see that in their interactions while wearing the suit… but that still didn’t mean that he was a fan.

Ganke remained quiet for a good few moments before nodding. “Yeah, go with the car approach.” 

~

That Friday, Miles found himself unable to focus on any of his classes. His mind kept wandering off to what he would tell his dad and how he would tell it. Part of him wanted to be direct and just straight up tell him “Hey dad, I’m Spiderman now,” and an even bigger part wanted to do definitely not that. 

“Mister Morales! Could you please repeat to me what Coulomb’s law entails?” His physics teacher asked, spotting that he was completely checked out.

Miles snapped out of his deep thought and smiled sheepishly at the teacher. _Quick, say something, anything._ He thought to himself. The notes on the whiteboard told him that they were talking about electrostatics… Alright, what did Coulomb’s law entail? “Uh… Similar charges repel each other and opposite charges attract each other? And Coulomb’s law is used to calculate the force which is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.”

“Very good, Mr Morales. I would still like it, however, if you would please pay some attention to my class.” She said before continuing her lesson.

Miles let out a relieved sigh and leaned back in his seat. His worrying should probably wait until the last period. 

~

The bell rang, ending the last period and starting the weekend for the students of Visions Academy. Miles raced through the hallways to his dorm to pick up his suitcase and head home. He had accepted his dad’s offer of a ride home this time, thinking it would be the perfect opportunity to tell him he’s New York’s newest web-slinging vigilante. He walked out of the school, went straight for the car and dropped his bags off on the front seat before getting in the backseat himself.

Jefferson looked at Miles via the interior mirror. “So, how was school?” He asked as he drove off into New York traffic.

“Yeah, it was alright. Class was class, tests went well enough. One of the teachers threw a pen at one of my classmates because he was on his phone, the same teacher also taught us how to legally avoid paying taxes. Another teacher told us how to start a communist revolution.” Miles smiled at his dad. Telling something like this would surely clear the air, get a playful mood going in the car. It made it easier to tell his secret.

Jefferson laughed at that. “Yeah, there will always be teachers like that. They make the best school stories, I can tell you that.” His eyes met Miles’s through the interior mirror. Miles swallowed thickly. “Dad-” 

“- Speaking of cool stories: A woman walked past the precinct this morning and she asked who did the mural, you know, the one you did of your uncle Aaron.” Jefferson continued.

“Dad, that’s really cool but-”

“- I told her you did it and she was really impressed by your artwork and she asked me to give you her number. Apparently, she owns a hairdresser’s somewhere in Bushwick and she wants you to do a mural in her shop, she’s even willing to pay for materials and time.”

Miles’s face lit up. “Are you serious, dad?” He asked incredulously. He knew his art was good, but commission good? The rest of the car ride home was spent talking about his art and how amazing it was someone wanted him to do a mural. Miles completely forgot to bring up his secret until they arrived home. His heart sank, this meant that he had to face his parents and tell them. He wasn’t looking forward to that, at all. He was terrified his dad would hate him for being Spiderman, he didn’t want to see the betrayal in his eyes. He didn’t want to see the worry in his mom’s eyes.

Still, it had to be done. Rather now than when he gets hurt.

~

Over the entirety of the weekend, opportunities arose to tell his parents that he was Spiderman and yet Miles took none of them. He always managed to find an excuse not to. On Sunday evening, however, it changed. Miles had spent the afternoon battling Rhino while his parents believed he was at Ganke’s place to do homework. The battle was long and arduous and there were a couple of really close calls where - had Miles not been as quick and nimble as he was - he could’ve gotten severely injured. The story May told him kept playing in his head and it served as a reminder that he didn’t want his parents to find out like that.

Yes, he was scared of their reaction, but as a wise guy once said to him: It’s a leap of faith.

Jefferson and Rio were comfortably cuddled up on the couch when Miles came to stand in front of them. He looked slightly uncomfortable and took a deep, shaky breath. “Mom, dad, I need to tell you something.”

Rio furrowed her brow in worry. “Miles? ¿Que pasa, mijo?” She asked. All weekend long she had noticed something had been off, watching her son wrestle with himself made her heart sink.

“I’ve been trying to find the right opportunity to tell you guys this all weekend long and I realised… there’s no right moment to do this. So here we go. I-” Miles said, before being interrupted by his dad.

“Miles, I know exactly what this is about.” He said, earning a confused look from both Miles and Rio. “Look, I just want you to know that no matter what, your mother and I love you and support you.”

Miles let out breathy and relieved laugh, all the tension disappearing from his body immediately. “You for real, dad? Oh, I’m so glad you feel that way. I’ve been struggling with how to tell you all week long.”

Jefferson chuckled and motioned for Miles to join them on the couch, which he gladly did. “Yeah, I’m for real. Look, son, I don’t care if you fall in love with guys or girls or both, just as long as you’re happy.” Once again, Jefferson got a confused look from Miles.

Rio smiled and ran her fingers through her son’s hair. “And I feel the exact same way, papito. I’m very glad you feel comfortable enough to come out to us.” Miles stared at the both of them before pursing his lips and flashing the both of them an uncomfortable smile.

“While I’m really relieved that you guys are accepting of me not being straight, that was a conversation I had planned for a couple of months in the future.” He stood back up, facing both his parents. Both Rio and Jefferson looked at him in bewilderment and a little bit of suspicion. “Right now I wanted to tell you something else. I know that you probably won’t like it, but this is the right way to go about it.”

He took a deep breath.  
“Mom, dad… I’m Spiderman.”


	2. Chapter 2

The silence was deafening and with every second, Miles lost a bit of the confidence he had gained from finally getting the words out in the open. Rio looked terrified. Not of him, but for him. She had seen the injuries people sustained just from being near the villains. She saw the pain they could cause. The thought that her boy was fighting these villains on a near daily basis, that he was risking serious injury and even death? Of course that would make her worry. She couldn’t protect him while he was fighting.

Jefferson just stared and kept staring until he finally found his words. “Is this a sick joke, Miles?” He asked, hoping to God that it was because much like his wife, he couldn’t stand the thought of his little boy getting hurt. Rio saw the damage the villains did to the people standing around but Jefferson saw the fight itself. He saw how people like the Vulture and Doc Ock threw Spiderman against walls, he was there during the big fight with Kingpin. If that was Miles… 

Miles couldn’t look his father in the eye. Instead, he went to his room and picked up his Spidersuit from his backpack to show to his parents. “I’m not, dad. I’m Spiderman.” He gave the suit to his mom, who looked from Miles to the suit and back to Miles again. The shock was still clear in her eyes. “I promise, both of you, I’m safe. May Parker helps me out a lot and I always get back up so you don’t have to worry about me.” He flashed a smile, not sure if he was trying to convince his parents that he was safe, or himself.

“Miles, mijo, that’s not how it works,” Rio said in that soft, motherly tone of voice, handing Jefferson the suit. She stood up from the couch and trapped Miles in a tight hug, slowly rocking from side to side. “We’re your parents, we’ll always worry about you. You can’t announce to us that you’re a vigilante and not expect us to be concerned for your well being. We see the images on the news, I see the people who get hurt during the fights and your dad is there at the scene.” Miles buries his face in his mom’s shoulder, holding her tight and letting out soft sobs.

“Lo siento, mama.” He whispers. He doesn’t want them to worry. “But I don’t want to stop being Spiderman.” Rio takes a step back and dries her son’s tears. “You don’t have to, sweetheart. I just want you to be safe and happy.” She looks at her husband, who was still staring at his son’s super suit. “¡Hala, mi amor! Say something to your son.” 

Jefferson gives the suit back to Miles. “You should probably go to sleep, you have school again tomorrow.” He didn’t want to acknowledge that his son was putting himself in danger as Spiderman. Tears welled up in Miles’s eyes again as he took the suit from his father. “Dad…” He said softly

“No ifs and buts, it’s a school night, you should go to bed.” He said, gently pushing Miles in the direction of his room. Miles swallowed the lump in his throat as he slowly walked back to his room. If there was one thing worse than his dad raising his voice, it was him trying to ignore anything was the matter in the first place. He curled up on his bed, brushing away those stupid tears that just kept coming. He didn’t want to cry anymore. He kept his door slightly ajar, wanting to hear what his parents had to say.

“Jeff, you should’ve said something to him.”

“I did!”

“Our son told us his secret, something he was clearly wrestling with for a long time and you tell him to go to bed! Yes, that is clearly what I meant by ‘say something’!” She sounded angry, really angry. It was the kind of anger Miles hadn’t hear come from his mother since she caught the man who kept slashing dad’s tires. 

“Rio, honey... “ He took a deep breath. “What was I supposed to say, huh? ‘I don’t approve of this and you can’t be Spiderman anymore?’ or ‘Oh, it’s okay that you throw yourself into danger! Please! Go out and be Spiderman!’.”

“No, you didn’t have to say that but you could’ve shown a little more support! You could’ve acknowledged that he is Spiderman!”

It was quiet for a minute, so quiet that Miles feared that his parents would be able to hear him if he let out the breath he was holding.

“I saw him almost die, Rio.”

“I know, you’re often on the sce-”

“No, not some random street fight. I saw him when he fought Wilson Fisk.” Miles’s heart skipped a beat. Right, his dad was there. He peeked through the gap and saw his mom look rather distressed. He swallowed away the tears that he felt pricking in his eyes. “I saw that man beating up our son, I saw him throwing Miles around like a ragdoll and very nearly killing him.”

“But he defeated him.” Rio retorted. “You told me so yourself. You said that you saw Spiderman shock Wilson Fisk and you later were able to arrest him because Spiderman had caught him in a web.”

“Yes, but it could’ve ended differently. I don’t want to watch the news and hear that Miles has been killed in a fight while trying to stop a crime. I don’t want him to end up dead in an alleyway like Aaron.”

That’s the last Miles wanted to hear, he closed the door and pulled the blankets over his head. He wanted to fall asleep as quickly as possible and just forget that he had told his parents that he was Spiderman.

~

“Miles! Get up, it’s time to go to school!” Jefferson knocked on Miles’s door. He groaned and turned around, pulling the covers back over his head. He did not feel like leaving for school… Another ten minutes passed before his dad opened the door. “Miles!”

Miles immediately jumped out of bed, standing to attention. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m awake! I’m ready, just give me a minute!” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he grabbed the school uniform out of his closet and put it on. “Dad, can you give me a ride?” He said, looking at the clock. If he were to walk now, he would be late and he couldn’t afford detention. 

“If you can be ready in 15 minutes, I’ll gladly give you a ride,” Jefferson said, leaving Miles’s room and closing the door behind him. Miles sat down with a sigh. He had gotten into the habit of packing his things the day before, so that was all solved… Eh, maybe he could pass on brushing his teeth just once. He breathed into his hand and sniffed.

Oh, definitely not.

He put on his shoes, brushed his teeth and kissed his mom goodbye. “hasta el viernes.” His mom trapped him in a tight hug. “Te quiero mucho recuerda eso,” she whispered to him. “No matter what, I love you so so much. Now, go have fun at school.” He waved at her before getting in the car with his dad. Bags in the front seat, Miles in the backseat. Jefferson started driving towards Visions Academy in complete silence. Miles didn’t like that much.

“Bummer that the weekend is over, right? I’d loved to spend more time back at home.” He tried to start a conversation with his dad. It felt unnatural. Usually, his dad had to coax conversation out of him, not the other way around.

“Miles, I want you to be honest with me. Were you at Ganke’s last Sunday?” Jefferson asked, his voice completely level, which freaked the hell out of Miles.

In his mind, he went through all his options. He could jump out of the car, they weren’t going that fast and his Spider-powers would make sure he’d at least land safely. It would’ve been a quick and good out… had it not been for the fact that he had to go to school and his dad had his bags. Lying was an option, but his dad was like a sniffer dog for lies and he wasn’t in the right state of mind to be really good at lying. Switching subjects would have yielded the same result as lying. The truth was the only option.

“No, I was fighting the Rhino,” he admitted, his head hung low.

“Right.” and once more it was completely quiet in the car. “Be safe, alright? I’ll see you Friday.” Jefferson said once they arrived at Visions.

“Love you, dad.”

“Love you too, Miles.”

~

English class was boring, the novel they were reading wasn’t interesting and it was mostly being quiet while the teacher soliloquised about how influential this writer was to the English language. Ganke tried to quietly get Miles’s attention. “Psst, hey!” he whispered. Miles looked up from his notes. “How’d the thing go?”

“The thing?”

“The thing you needed to tell your parents about, that thing!”

“Oh… that thing.” Miles shook his head slightly. “It went… I think dad hates me.” It didn’t sit well with him that his father acted so distant to him, he had seen his dad angry and sad before but this was a whole different thing. It almost felt as if he didn’t have any hope for him anymore. “Mom was okay with it, sort of.”

“Hey, that’s one out of two! Not bad! She can try to convince him to let you be-” Ganke looked around him and lowered his voice even more- “Spiderman.” Miles shook his head again.

“I don’t need permission from dad to be Spiderman, I’m going to keep doing it whether he likes it or not. I just would’ve liked it if he reacted differently to it.” He whispered before being called on by the teacher. Right, class.

~

Miles would’ve loved to be able to say that the rest of the week was good, that he was able to put everything aside and just get on with school and being Spiderman, but he couldn’t. Even his evening patrols weren’t able to clear his mind. He kept making mistakes and even if they weren’t huge mistakes, it still bummed him out enormously. It even made him consider hanging up the super suit for the time being.

No, he couldn’t do that. New York needed their friendly neighbourhood Spiderman just as much as he needed to be him.

He couldn’t keep going like this either.

~

“Miles!” Out of all the people May would’ve expected to show up on her doorstep on a Thursday evening, Miles wasn’t one of them. Especially not since there hadn’t been any news reports on either major battles nor minor criminal activities being apprehended by Spiderman.

“Hey, could we talk?” Miles asked, hands in his pockets and trying to make himself small. He didn’t want to intrude on May, she probably had a lot of things going herself. 

She gave him a kind smile and let him in. “Go sit down, I’ll get you something to drink.”

~

Miles gladly accepted the cup of hot chocolate from May. She sat down in her chair with a cup of tea for herself. “You said you wanted to talk?”

He took a sip from the hot chocolate. It was so nice and comforting and it finally managed to get the tension out of his body that he had been feeling all week long. “Yeah, I did. I…” He paused, trying to think of how he would continue the sentence. “I told my parents that I’m Spiderman.”

May quirked an eyebrow. “Good on you. How did they react?” She asked, despite knowing the answer. If both his parents reacted brilliantly, he wouldn’t be here wanting to talk. 

Miles swallowed thickly. “Well, mom reacted okay. She’s kind of worried but I’d expected her to be. Dad… I think dad isn’t okay with it but I’m not sure. He seems really worried and he said that he was scared for me and that he didn’t want me to end up like-” he couldn’t finish the sentence without his stomach hurting and his mind flashing back to the lifeless body of his uncle lying on the ground in the alleyway. “I know he saw me fighting Kingpin so I know he knows that I can do this…” He said, staring into his cup

May took sips from her tea and patiently listened to Miles pouring his heart out. “As you said, your father is scared for you and he’s quite right to be. It’s not safe to be Spiderman. You get hurt, you get into mortal peril. I’ll be honest with you, Miles; when I just learned that Peter was Spiderman, I wanted him to stop. I was terrified that I would lose him like I almost did when he came stumbling in in his suit for the first time.” 

Miles looked up at her. “What made you change your mind?”

“Time. It took a while but eventually, I accepted that he was Spiderman, I accepted that he wasn’t going to stop because he was doing what was right.” She got up and sat down next to Miles, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a side hug. “And I’m sure that the same will go for your dad. Just give it time, and don’t forget to call him to let him know you’re alright.”  
He smiled. “Thanks, May.”

~

Friday afternoon, the bell rang. School was out and the weekend had started. Miles raced out of his classroom. The knot in his stomach had disappeared after talking to May but now that he was hurrying to the car, the knot had reappeared. 

He threw his bags in the front seat and got into the backseat. “Hey, dad.” He said, trying not to sound too nervous. Jefferson smiled, looking at his son through the interior mirror.

“Hey, how was school? Got into any trouble?”

Miles chuckled, shrugging a little. “Nah, no trouble. Perfectly alright week.”

Jefferson let out a soft chuckle and drove off. “So, Miles. I’ve been thinking.” Miles’s breath hitched in his throat, scared of where this conversation was heading. “Look, last week… I didn’t handle it correctly but it’s only because I’m scared. I saw you fight Wilson Fisk, and I just… I can’t handle the thought of losing you.”

He flashed his dad a half-smile. “Yeah, I know.”

“Look, I know you don’t want to stop being Spiderman and God knows that New York can’t do without you either.” Jeff took a deep breath. “I just want you to be safe.” 

“I know.”

“Can you promise me you’ll be safe?”

“I promise you I’ll try, and I promise to call after my patrols so you know I got home safely.” Miles offered. He looked in the interior mirror to look at his dad. 

Jefferson stopped the car on the side of the road and turned to his son. “I think I can live with that,” he said, smiling at him.

Miles’s heart fluttered. “I love you, dad.”

“I love you too, son. Now let’s get home before your mom starts thinking you managed to convince me to fight a bad guy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the fic! If you liked it (or even if you hated it with a burning passion), feel free to comment or leave kudos! I'm not planning to write anything else for this fic but I am planning to maybe writing more fics in the future so stay tuned for that.
> 
> No beta readers, we die like men and once again apologies if I mangled the Spanish!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading my fanfic. It's been ages since I wrote fanfiction but I simply had to write a story with my favourite trope. I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave a comment.
> 
> No beta readers, we post straight up like men! and my sincerest apologies if I mangled the Spanish...


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